A New History of the Horror Story: From Homer to Lovecraft

Flavorwire: The below essay, by attorney and writer Leslie S. Klinger, is taken from the introduction to In the Shadow of Edgar Allan Poe: Classic Tales of Horror, 1816–1914, a new anthology devoted to recovering those horror writers who are obscured by the looming shadow of Edgar Allan Poe. In his introduction, Klinger locates the origin of the “tale of terror” not in Poe — as is often claimed — but in Homer. Next, Klinger threads his history of horror through its “flowering” in the late 18th century, in effect providing a sensible context for what would become the modern horror story. In Klinger’s narrative, Poe’s work, as well of that of his disciples, is made all the more fascinating because it is placed in a new context — a new history of horror.